Economic Conditions of Using Biodegradable Waste for Biogas Production, Using the Example of Poland and Germany

Abstract

Biogas production is a process with great potential. It uses the biodegradable raw materials of animal, vegetable and municipal waste. The amount of municipal as well as agricultural waste is increasing every year. This waste is an unmanaged and nuisance waste, and using it in biogas plants reduces the amount of waste. Biogas production is part of the EU’s policy to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and use energy from renewable sources (diversification of energy sources). Its importance is certain to increase in the future as energy demand increases. This article deals with the economical use of biodegradable waste for biogas production in Poland and Germany. Both countries have a similar agricultural and municipal waste structure. An agricultural biogas plant is one way of obtaining energy based on renewable energy sources (RES). Energy production from agricultural biogas will allow Poland to meet the 32% obligation imposed by the EU and Germany to continue to be the market leader in biogas plants. The biogas market in Poland is growing, while in Germany, there is a decline in biogas installations. The article indicates what changes need to take place in agriculture and the use of municipal waste in these countries to sustain the development of biogas plants. Both countries should maintain animal husbandry to ensure continuous access to substrate and use waste for production rather than growing maize or other mixtures only for biogas plants. Due to the high price of chemical fertilisers, pulp from biogas plants should be an alternative to chemical fertilisers in both countries, which will contribute to greener crops. The governments of both countries should support such measures.

Improving Economic Welfare through Capital Development: Case Study of Smallholder Dairy Farmers in Pujon District

“…Adequate equipment is required to maximize profits and minimize losses effectively. Biogas production from animal feces, particularly cow manure, offers many potential benefits, including the production of a renewable-energy source that is environmentally friendly because it uses waste from animals [54,55].…”

Balance and Energy Use of Biogas in Poland: Prospects and Directions of Development for the Circular Economy

“…The installed electrical capacity increased by 69.5%, the amount of produced biogas increased by 78.6%, while the production of electricity increased from 141.8 GWh in 2012 to 732.6 GWh in 2021. Based on statistical data [19,33], publications [34][35][36] and reports [24, 25,27], the potential of agricultural biogas in Poland was estimated. Waste in the form of natural fertilisers from animal production, waste from plant production, waste from the agricultural and food industry as well as raw materials from special purpose crops were adopted as substrates for the agricultural biogas production process.…”

“…Biowastes from the stream of municipal waste collected selectively (green waste from gardens, parks and cemeteries, waste from marketplaces, kitchen waste and waste from gastronomy) were adopted as potential substrates for the production of municipal biogas. The balance of biowaste obtainable from the stream of collected municipal waste was estimated on the basis of statistical data [19,30,33], reports [25,27] and literature [34,35,37,38]. Currently, a significant part of biowaste still ends up in mixed municipal waste, but over time, along with the improvement of selective collection, the stream of biowaste collected selectively will be augmented [39].…”

“…Figure 3. Current state and prospects of energy production in cogeneration units[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37] …”

Towards a sustainable energy future: Evaluating Arundo donax L. in continuous anaerobic digestion for biogas production

“…The exact amount and quality of biogas can vary depending on the feedstock used and the conditions of the anaerobic digestion process (Bharathiraja et al., 2018). Currently, in the European Union, biogas production primarily uses corn silage as a raw material (Sobczak et al., 2022). Corn silage is used in biogas production because it provides exceptionally high green mass yields and, proportionally, a large amount of energy in the process of biogas production (Amon et al., 2007; Fuksa et al., 2020).…”